IBM, Compaq flummoxed by lack of Y2K compliance in Win98

Not to mention their channels....

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Major PC vendors are unable to say how they will deal with Year 2000 compliance issues caused by Windows 98, despite having detailed plans for their hardware. Last week, Microsoft confessed that there were Year 2000 compliance issues with Windows 98, which shipped in April of this year. At that time, Microsoft had already instituted many person hours to the Year 2000 issue, and had issued white papers and other materials to alert end users to the problem. Nevertheless, large corporate organisations, including the Bank of England, had pointed to problems with software it sold. A Compaq representative said today: "Basically, the company refuses to comment on this issue". She added that Compaq was not willing to say how would it help its channel partners either. Two months ago, IBM said that it would supply Windows 95 to customers who had reservations about using Windows 98 (Story: IBM offers downgrade from Win98. At press time, it had not responded. When it does, we'll add in its comments. Looks to us like the channel will suffer... ®